The present invention relates to a method of and an apparatus for actuating an operation.
In the field known as xe2x80x9csentient computingxe2x80x9d, a system for locating each of a plurality of transponders is disclosed in GB 2 320 089, GB 2 332 052, GB 2 332 053, GB 2 332 054, GB 2 332 055, and British Patent Application No. 9929900.0. Each transponder comprises a receiver for receiving a radio signal directed to all of the transponders of the system. The output of the receiver is connected to a decoder for recognising the code corresponding to the individual transponder. When that code is received, the decoder actuates an ultrasonic transducer, which emits a short burst or single pulse of ultrasonic radiation. The transponder also comprises a transmitter which can be manually actuated by a switch to transmit a radio signal carrying the code of the individual transponder.
A plurality of ultrasonic transducers are distributed spatially about an environment in which the transponders are to be located. For example, the environment may comprise a single room or a set of rooms constituting an office, laboratory or other commercial establishment. The receiving transducers are, for example, disposed on the ceilings of the room or rooms and convert received ultrasonic pulses into corresponding electrical pulses which are supplied to a central processing unit.
The central processing unit is connected to a transmitter which transmits the transponder codes in sequence so as to poll the transponders in turn. In particular, each transponder code is used to modulate a radio frequency carrier and the codes are transmitted in sequence with sufficiently large gaps between consecutive codes for the ultrasonic energy transmitted by each transponder to have decayed sufficiently before the next transponder is polled so as to avoid confusion. The time delay between polling each transponder and the initial time of arrival of the ultrasonic pulse which it emits to each receiving transducer allows the central processing unit to determine the position of each transponder to within a few centimeters of its actual location.
The central processing unit is also connected to a receiver which receives the signals transmitted by the transponders and actuates predefined operations in response thereto.
JP 11167688 A discloses an arrangement which is concerned with the management of the elderly and infirm so as to prevent their wandering out of or escaping from an institution providing residential care. The inmates wear shoes containing a form of transponder which is actuated upon receipt of induced power so as to transmit a code identifying the inmate. Access points in various boundaries are provided with sensors which power a transponder by induction when the transponder is crossing a boundary and which receive the code identifying the inmate and forward it via a hard-wired network to a central control together with a code identifying the location at the boundary. The sensors are generally fixed at doorways and gateways and the system can only infer, from detection of boundary crossings, whether each inmate is inside or outside a room, building or the like. Such a system cannot therefore detect the position of an inmate anywhere within the area which is covered by the system but can, at best, only give an indication of whether an inmate is within a given boundary or between two nested boundaries. The positions of the sensors are fixed and predetermined in such a way that they cannot be arbitrarily selected. Further, the locations of the sensors are associated with the crossing of one or more boundaries by inmates.
According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of actuating an operation, comprising the steps of:
(a) selecting, within a continuous three dimensional space constituting an environment for personnel within which personnel are able to move substantially freely, at least one arbitrary region having no association with the operation at the time of selection;
(b) storing in a memory the at least on e s elected region;
(c) determining the position of at least one transponder anywhere within the space; and
(d) actuating the operation when the position of the at least one transponder is determined to be within the at least one selected region.
According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided an apparatus for actuating an operation, comprising: at least one transponder; a transponder location system for determining t he location of the at least one transponder anywhere within a continuous three dimensional space constituting an environment for personnel within which personnel are able to move substantially freely, the system including a memory for storing data identifying at least one arbitrarily selected region having no association with the operation at the time of selection; and a comparator for comparing the location of the at least one transponder with the at least one selected region and for actuating the operation when the location of the at least one transponder is within the at least one selected region.
This technique allows any operation to be controlled merely by selecting arbitrarily any region within the environment to act as a control for the operation. The or each region can be selected entirely arbitrarily, for example so as to be convenient to a user. At the time of selecting the or each region, it has no association with the operation which is to be actuated or controlled. There are therefore no constraints on the selection of the or each region and the selection may be done purely for convenience. In principal, any operation which is capable of being controlled may be controlled in this way. Thus, there are no constraint s on operations which may be controlled using this technique other than that they are capable of being controlled in response to some type of signal or information.
Although not essential, the space may be enclosed.
For convenience, the or each selected region may be partially delimited by a solid surface within the space. Examples of such solid surfaces include room walls and desktops.
The operation may be actuated solely in response to the position of the at least one transponder being determined to be within the at least one selected region. As an alternative, the operation may be actuated in response to: the position of the at least one transponder being determined to be within the at least one selected region; and a user-actuated signal from the at least one transponder. For this purpose, the at least one transponder may comprise a manually actuated transmitter for transmitting an actuation signal to the location system and the comparator may be arranged to actuate the operation only when the actuation signal is received while the location of the at least one transponder is determined to be within the at least one selected region.
The apparatus may comprise a plurality of transponders forming a set and the step (c) may comprise determining the positions of the plurality of transponders comprising the set. The operation may be actuated when the position of any of the transponders of the set is determined to be within the at least one selected region. As an alternative, the operation may be actuated only when the position of any transponder of a proper subset of the set of transponders is determined to be within the at least one selected region. Thus, the actuation of an operation may be limited to only certain transponders which may, for example, be carried by personnel who are authorised to actuate or control the operation.
The location system may be arranged to identify the transponder responsible for actuating the operation. At least one aspect of the performance of the operation may be determined by the identity of the transponder responsible for actuating the operation. Thus, different transponders, for example carried by different personnel, can actuate or control the operation such that different results are achieved. Also, once a transponder has actuated an operation, the resulting performance of the operation may follow the location of the transponder and hence the person carrying the transponder.
The location system may be arranged to poll periodically the at least one transponder to determine the location thereof. The rate of polling of the or each transponder may be increased when its position is determined to be within the at least one selected region. In cases where the operation is dependent in some way on the position of the transponder, the normal polling rate may not be sufficient to provide adequate positional resolution when the transponder is being moved relatively rapidly. Thus, the polling rate may be increased for such a transponder without the need to increase the normal polling rate of other transponders which are not currently being used to control an operation.
The location system may be arranged to determine the relative position of the at least one transponder with respect to a reference position in the at least one selected region and the comparator may be arranged to control the value of a parameter of the operation in accordance with the relative position. Although relatively simple operations, such as toggling between on and off states, may be controlled effectively by the presence of a transponder in a selected region, it is also possible to use the position of a transponder to control some aspect of the operation. For example, the relative position may be a one-dimensional position and the parameter may be a scalar parameter. In another example, the relative position is a two-dimensional position adjacent a surface and the parameter is a two dimensional vector parameter. The surface may be a solid surface within the space. In the case of a scalar parameter, a slider control may be defined at any desired location so as to control the magnitude and possibly the polarity of some aspect of the operation. Also, a surface may be used to define a more complex operation, such as the two dimensional position of a cursor on a computer screen in essentially the same way as a conventional mouse may be used.
The method may be used with a plurality of spatially distributed indicators for providing a user-perceivable indication and the method may comprise selecting, in response to actuation of the operation, the indicator nearest the or each transponder whose position is determined to be within the at least one selected region to produce an indication of acknowledgement of the actuation of the operation. For this purpose, each indicator may have a respective transponder and the location system may be arranged to determine the distance between the transponder of each indicator perceivable by a user and the at least one transponder and to actuate the indicator whose transponder is nearest the at least one transponder. Where the operation is of the type whose actuation or control is clear to personnel, no further indication is necessary. However, it may be that the nature of the operation is such that a person cannot tell whether it has been successfully actuated. This technique ensures that an indication, such as a visual or audible indication, is provided in a way such that the user has confirmation of successful actuation or control.
Although the at least one region is selected arbitrarily and with no initial association or connection with the operation to be controlled, for convenience, labels identifying the operation may be disposed at the or each selected region. Indeed, such labels may be disposed at the or each region before registration in the location system, for example at the time of selection. However, the mere disposal of such a label does not imply any association between the selected region and the operation i.e. selection remains entirely arbitrary and is not in any way determined by the actual operation.
The step (a) may comprise: disposing the transponder or one of the transponders at a location within the or each selected region; detecting the position of the transponder; providing a user actuated signal to cause the detected position to be stored in the transponder location system; and defining a boundary of the selected region. The location system may comprise a user interface for actuating storage of a determined location of the at least one transponder for defining the at least one selected region. This represents a very convenient way of registering and defining the or each selected region.
The method may comprise actuating at least one further operation of the system by: selecting within the space, for the or each further operation, at least one further arbitrary region having no association with the further operation at the time of selection; storing in the memory the at least one further selected region; and actuating the or each further operation when the position of the at least one transponder is determined to be within the corresponding at least one selected further region. For this purpose, the memory may be arranged to store data identifying at least one further arbitrarily selected region having no association with a further operation at the time of selection and the comparator may be arranged to actuate the further operation when the location of the least one transponder is within the at least one further selected region. Thus, more than one operation may be controlled using the same location system and transponder or transponders. There is no theoretical limit to the number of different operations and different types of operation which may be controlled using the same hardware. Further, operations may or may not be transponder-specific in the sense of responding to only some of the transponders whereas transponders may or may not be operation-specific in that each transponder may control one or more than one such operation.